3rd Reactor In Crisis, U.S. 7th Fleet Pulled

March 14th, 2011 2:45am CST
UPDATE 3/14/11 7:10am CST Please CLICK HERE to find information to donate to Japanese relief efforts.

Both AP and The Washington Post are reporting that a third reactor has lost cooling and they again will be attempting to inject seawater as a stabilizer:

"The operator of a quake-stricken nuclear power plant in northeastern Japan says a third reactor has lost its cooling capacity, which could lead to overheating and an explosion similar to two blasts at its other reactors.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. official Takako Kitajima said Monday that plant workers were preparing to inject seawater into the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant's Unit 2 to cool down its reactor following the loss of its cooling system.

Kitajima said officials are also set to take other steps, including a release of pressure through ventilation if the reactor overheats."

In other related news, MSNBC reports via AP that the U.S. 7th Fleet has been moved further offshore from the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex after the detection of low level radiation:

"The aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan was about 100 miles (160 kilometers) offshore when its instruments detected the radiation. But the fleet says the dose of radiation was about the same as one month's normal exposure to natural background radiation in the environment."